Finally, here is the first bloggable item I made today. Berries are in season right now and I bought some to make a 4th of July pie. I was planning to take this pie to a 4th of July block party at our neighborhood tonight. Hence, it looked so good. DH and I were going to cut a piece and share it between us to try it out first before we served it to our neighbors because I have never made it before. Well, this plan didn't work well! We ate half of the pie in 1 sitting! After my 1st bite of the first piece, I kept getting another bite etc. etc. DH questioned "Where is my bite?" I gave him 1 bite and that was it, I finished the rest of the piece so he decided to cut his own piece. Then, I cut another piece after I ate my first piece. DH did the same, too. There you go, half a pie was gone in minutes. It is not that we are pigs but this pie is so goood! There is no way we will go to the party with half eaten pie so we decided to keep the rest for tomorrow(for us) and go empty handed to the party. Thankgoodness, bringing a dish was not required.
This recipe came from Love, Eric cookbook by Eric Lechasseur (see my previous post: Strawberry Mousse Cake). It is a 'wheat-free' recipe. I have never used spelt flour before and was surprised of the result of the pie crust. It was a great pie crust made of spelt flour, maple sugar, and safflower oil.
This pie is not low-fat because of the pine nuts which has 17 g of fat per 1/4 cup. It is deliciously rich but not too sweet. The blueberries compliment the rich filling. The original recipe use blueberries only but I added raspberries to make the pie red, white, and blue for the 4th (the pine nut filling is white).
I changed the recipe a little bit because I don't have grapeseed oil on hand. I replaced it with safflower oil. I also didn't use the glaze because I don't have kuzu and it still tastes yummy.
Here is the recipe:
Printable Recipe
Blueberry Pine Nut Pie (Makes 6 servings)
by Eric Lechausser (Love, Eric cookbook)
For the pine nut filling:1 1/2 cups pine nuts
2 oz. silken tofu (Mori-Nu brand)
4 tbsp. organic apple sauce
1 tsp aluminum-free baking powder
1/8 tsp sea salt
1/4 rice syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp safflower oil
For the pie crust:1 3/4 cup spelt flour
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/3 cup maple sugar
1/3 cup safflower oil
1/4 cup water
For the blueberry topping:1 1/2 cups fresh organic blueberries
1 cup organic apple juice
1 tbsp kuzu or tapioca flour
1 tbsp agar flakes
To prepare the pine nuts:
- Preheat the oven to 200F
- Roast the pine nuts lightly on a baking sheet in the oven just until lightly golden color, approximately 4 to 5 minutes (or toast pine nuts on the stovetop in a skillet).
- Transfer roasted nuts to a food processor and grind into a fine powder.
- Increase oven temperature to 350F.
- In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients.
- In a small bowl, emulsify the wet ingredients then combine with the dry mixture.
- Knead quickly and allow dough to sit for 10 minutes.
- Roll out the dough to fit six 4-inch pie shells or one 8-inch pie shell. Bake pie crust for 10 minutes and set aside. ( I think he meant bake it blindly. I also use a fork to make tiny holes on the unbaked crust first before baking)
- Add the remaining ingredients to the pine nuts in a food processor and process until smooth.
- Pour mixture into the pie shell. Bake for 20 minutes. (I baked mine for about 30 minutes since I use a 9-inch tart pan).
(I actually didn't make the glaze and just arrange blueberries and raspberries on top of the baked pie)
- In a saucepan, combine the apple juice with the agar over medium-high heat. Simmer until agar has dissolved, about 5 minutes.
- In a small bowl, dissolve the kuzu/tapioca with 1 tablespoon of water.
- Whisk the kuzu/tapioca mixture into the apple juice and continue cooking and whisking until mixture thickens.
- When it has fully thickened, turn off the heat.
- Add the fresh blueberries to the saucepan and stir the mixture with a spatula.
- Pour over the baked pie.
- Allow the pie to cool before serving.
